Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

When reality is on a different side from historical experience.

Ren Zhong hesitated a little.

In his plans, he has always chosen to follow the general direction of the trend. Now the trend of the times seems to have deviated from the track. Ren Zhong does not know which direction to go as he steps into an unknown new era.

imperial capital.

IT Technology Research Center of Liming Research Institute.

"Dean Ren, why don't we use our own internal company to commercialize the personal computers this time so as to maintain the monopoly of our Dongda technology and obtain the greatest benefits?" Professor Yang Zhenjun, the head of the research center, seemed a little confused about Ren Zhong's request.

In the past, after the Liming Research Institute developed a new technology, it usually established a company to carry out commercial development, and then spread it to other similar companies in the country to form a new industry in the country.

But this time, when the IT Technology Research Center completed the research on the supporting hardware technology related to personal computers and realized all the hardware and software (CPU, memory, motherboard, keyboard, monitor and operating system) of the first real personal computer in history, Ren Zhong proposed a completely different idea - open PC standards, preparing to allow all capable companies in the world to use the universal standard hardware developed by Tokyo University to assemble PCs, and to open up all technical information except the operating system and BIOS.

This open strategy can enable personal computers that adopt the Dongda PC standard to be developed quickly, occupy the personal computer market, and promote the Dongda PC technology standard to become the de facto PC standard.

"Professor Yang, I do this for two reasons. First, we want to quickly bring personal computers to the market and set the new PC standard. Second, the PC market will be very large, and we at Dongda University cannot take over the market alone. We must introduce many partners to this industry. By developing technical standards, we can control the core technology of the market supply chain. With the formation of standards, our CPU, memory, interface standards, operating system and other core components will become indispensable to PCs. We control the upstream of the supply chain and get the biggest piece of the pie."

Ren Zhong explained.

In the main world, the development of personal computers began in 1971. After a decade of twists and turns, it was not until the release of IBM PC1981 in 5150 and the opening of related technologies that the personal computer era was truly opened, allowing friendly companies to produce IBM PC compatible machines. Through open standards, IBM promoted the rapid development of the personal computer market and benefited from it. Although it was soon counterattacked by compatible machine manufacturers and dethroned as the king of PC with cost-effectiveness, there is no doubt that IBM's great development in the computer era is inseparable from the open PC standards.

At this point in time and space, Ren Zhong was preparing to release this powerful weapon, and he had even deeper considerations.

The 8080 chip has been developed for some time, and there are hundreds of computers based on this chip, but there are few that are similar to the personal PC in Ren Zhong's mind. After all, there are not so many geniuses who can see through the fog of historical development.

The IT Technology Research Center is conducting in-depth research on personal PC related technologies according to Ren Zhong's deployment, such as memory, keyboard, disk, monitor, display card and other basic things. The old technology such as magnetic core is naturally not suitable for new computers. The first generation of disks currently being studied: floppy disk technology is the standard configuration of the first generation of personal computers. According to Ren Zhong's technical guidance, Dongda's floppy disk technology has conquered the double-sided low-density 360KB 5.25-inch floppy disk, and is now researching double-sided high-density 720KB 3.5-inch floppy disk and higher 1.44MB capacity 3.5-inch floppy disk!

Next, a plan was launched for hard disk research, and Ren Zhong transferred the information on basic technical principles and material composition to the world of Bright Sword.

However, with floppy disks and three types of memory: 4KB/8KB/16KB, the basic core components of a personal computer were completed.

As for the display card and monitor, the display card is currently only responsible for 2D text and pattern display. According to the information provided by Ren Zhong, this research has also completed the matching of 14-inch and 15-inch monochrome and 256-color monitors. At the same time, in order to reduce the difficulty of PC promotion, the IT Technology Research Center of the Liming Research Institute customized a display card that matches the TV, allowing users to connect the TV to use it as a monitor.

Of course, opening up PC technology does not mean that core technologies such as memory, keyboard, disk and graphics card will be disclosed. These are core IT patents that have applied for patent protection, and they will be the real moat of Dongda in the IT industry chain in the future!
After Ren Zhong briefly explained the future development model of the PC industry to Professor Yang, Professor Yang seemed to understand it a little, but finally he was not so resistant.

"Okay, Dean Ren, according to what you said, we don't need to set up any new company to promote PC computers. We can just open it to our domestic computer companies and let them do it. If we want to promote it globally, we still have to hold a technology conference for the world, right? But holding such a conference will cost us a lot of money, and it feels like a bit of a loss-making approach." Professor Yang Zhenjun complained.

"How can we lose money?" Ren Zhong smiled. "After all, the law is not easily passed on. Although we are open to the public for free, it does not mean that we will not charge any money. If we do so, those companies will not value it. Starting this year, we can host a technical conference called the Global Computer Conference (GCC) to release new technologies and exchange ideas. We will charge at least 499 US dollars for each representative who is willing to participate. Only those who attend the conference are eligible to purchase our PC technical standards compilation. I think it is not too much to sell this technical compilation for 999 US dollars."

"Of course, we accept local currency in China. For those from overseas, we charge money before allowing them to join. This is one aspect. In addition, we will also hold an IT exhibition. During the GCC conference, all IT technology companies can display their products in the exhibition hall near the venue, giving everyone an opportunity to promote their products. Of course, there is also a fee for the exhibition space."

Professor Yang Zhenjun was stunned by Ren Zhong's idea.

This, this... isn't this a bit of an insult to technology?

Is there really anyone who would come like this?
It was as if he saw through Yang Zhenjun's doubts.

"You guys should take advantage of the situation and use your brains to do a good job of publicity. Now that we have developed the world's first real personal computer, I think we can broadcast a global live demonstration of the first personal computer on the technology channel. We should put more effort into publicity and make this known to everyone. Then, we can announce that the technology will be released to the World Computer Conference. Wouldn't that attract all kinds of merchants? Don't underestimate those people's sensitivity to making money. Personal computers are definitely a sunrise industry that will continue into the next century. You can make money no matter what if you enter now."

The first PC: IBM 5150
. . .

With Ren Zhong's guidance, the domestic PC industry chain formed a loose alliance, and the IT Technology Research Center took the lead in starting preparations for the first Global Computer Conference.

They first held a global product launch conference, using the Star I, the first real personal computer they built, to show the purpose of personal computers and live demonstration applications to a global TV live audience. The first generation of personal computers with CCDOS operating system, dbase data and office suite were even more amazing than the one in the main world's historical time and space. According to the official suggested retail price, such a powerful personal computer comparable to a medium-sized transistor computer only costs $1999!

It also includes the dbase database software for US$99, the CCDOS system for US$149 and the office suite for US$299. After removing the software, the hardware part is less than US$1500!

The cost-effectiveness of this product was so high that it caused a global sensation as soon as it was announced.

Although the live broadcast of the press conference was not coordinated due to time differences and other factors, resulting in less than 100 million TV viewers worldwide, it still attracted the attention of some people, and the world's major media outlets went viral the next day.

Almost all the mainstream media's technology news headlines reported the news that Dongda released the personal computer Star I, and some newspapers even put it on the front page headlines!

Because with the large-scale application of transistor computers, the advanced countries in the world now have a very deep understanding of computers. When the 8080 chip of Dongda was first launched, it triggered headlines, claiming that the era of personal computers was about to come. Now Dongda has finally completed the product design of independent personal computers based on this chip, and demonstrated its powerful office capabilities in the live broadcast!
The article editing and database processing are both excellent. Compared with medium-sized transistor computers that cost tens of thousands of US dollars, the price is so low that everyone can afford it. You should know that when Dongda exported transistor computers, the DC-10000K with a computing speed of 10 times our export ex-factory price was 30 US dollars, and the DC-20000K with a computing speed of 20 times our export ex-factory price was 100 million US dollars. As for our current top-level transistor minicomputer MC-360, our cost price is now as high as 2000 million US dollars!
At this price, the export was restricted at the beginning, and some other conditions had to be exchanged for it to be exported. In exchange, it obtained the Rogue Hawk transport aircraft and Fletcher destroyer and other items that the University of East China urgently needed.

Although the price of transistor computers has been brought down a lot after several years of development, the current mainstream price of transistor computers is still over ten thousand US dollars per unit!
Now, Tokyo University has lowered the computer threshold by more than US$1000, which is a milestone and huge progress in the computer industry.

What made the computer industry even more crazy was that at the end of the live broadcast of the product, the host also issued a notice of the Global Computer Conference, claiming that such computer production technology and standards would be publicly released at the Global Computer Conference held at the University of Tokyo in a month!

After passing a simple certification, the design of the personal computer of the University of Tokyo will make most of its technologies public, making it easier for all companies interested in producing this personal computer to produce compatible machines!
In other words, the University of Tokyo actually allowed others to copy and produce this powerful and cost-effective personal computer!

This news swept through the computer and electronics industries of all major powers like an earthquake!
As soon as they received the news, dozens of electronics industry giants developed from the Qianlong Project made the decision to fully transform and develop personal computer production lines. They did not need the promotion of undercover personnel at all. For example, Santos, the vice president of products at Vision Company, rushed into Ma Zhiyuan's office and gave an impassioned speech on the necessity and urgency of entering the personal computer market.

In his opinion, this personal computer from Dongda and the television from Vision are a perfect match!

They can develop bare metal devices that can be connected to the TVs they sell, helping these TV users transform them into computers.

And when you sell a new TV, you can package this computer together and sell it as a complete set!

So for Vision, which is looking for the next growth point, there is no better product than this.

After all, now that VCRs and home theaters are being used in home entertainment, the development of Vision seems to have reached a new bottleneck. In the TV business, although Vision is still the only one standing out, no less than seven or eight competitors have emerged, whether in Rogue Eagle or Continental, to compete for the market. Now Vision's product lead is not large.

With a market value of tens of billions of US dollars and heading towards 200 billion, Vision urgently needs a more promising product to support it.

The personal computer came at the perfect time.

At almost the same time, GoldenStar, the leader in the foggy city founded by Liu Jiayi, also expanded into the television industry with the help of tape recorders and VCRs, becoming the leader in home entertainment in Europe. After its listing, its market value exceeded 50 billion pounds, making it a star in the financial and technology circles.

The current wave of personal computers has also been noticed by their company's vice president of products. Liu Jiayi will naturally not stop it. He had already obtained first-hand information about Dongda University. When deciding on the global live broadcast, Liu Jiayi also deliberately guided the company's product department to watch the program on site!

So they hit it off and quickly established a personal computer division to carry out this work, and sent a 20-person technical team to Dongda to learn and introduce this technology!
GoldenStar is now wealthy and powerful. Since they have decided to do it, their team will go to Dongda to get the full set of technology. No matter whether they buy it or cooperate in production, according to Liu Jiayi's authorization, the vice president of products has the right to make decisions on the spot at the front!

Personal computers were crucial to the company's development, and they were even prepared to pay certain patent licensing fees.

Ren Zhong promoted the openness of personal computers, on the one hand, in order to quickly turn the personal computer standards of the University of Tokyo into the actual global PC standards. On the other hand, he also knew that the first to respond to this matter would be the seeds of the successful University of Tokyo's Qianlong Project, and they would definitely find a way to respond in this round of opening up.

As a result, most of the benefits of this wave of technological opening up are rotten in the hands of our own people.

And through this technological opening, we can secretly support another wave of seeds of the Qianlong Project, because the impact of personal computers on the world is far beyond the understanding of people in the current world. After this batch of seeds of the Qianlong Project take the lead in becoming the de facto distributors of Dongda personal computers, the bigger they grow, the greater their contribution to Dongda's personal computer standards, and they will compete for market space as much as possible in the downstream, thus strangling the wild giants that may threaten Dongda's computer industry chain in the local powers.

As long as they occupy most of the PC terminal market space of the great powers, and the core components are all from Dongda, then the market space of the local chip manufacturers of the great powers will be compressed to an insignificant level in the future. In this way, it will be extremely difficult for them to catch up.

Without market feedback and profits to support chip manufacturers, it would be difficult for the corporate mechanisms of the great powers to persist until the day of success. (End of this chapter)